


Interim

by Roboticabirdie



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Gender-Neutral Frisk, Neutral Pacifist Ending, POV Second Person, neutral pacifist ending spoilers, takes place between the neutral pacifist ending and before the reset to get the pacifist ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 08:28:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5450045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roboticabirdie/pseuds/Roboticabirdie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You did everything right, but everything still turned out so wrong.<br/>Maybe this is just the way the world is meant to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Interim

**Author's Note:**

> In the phone call, Sans mentions that it's been a while since Frisk left. This got me thinking about what might have happened in the time between the ending and the reset, which led to this. Enjoy!

You stumble through the barrier into the fading light of evening.

It has only been a few days since you fell, but it feels like weeks, years, a lifetime. You don’t look back. It takes all of your determination just to move forward, back through the woods, back to the city you came from. If you look back you’ll just want to go back. But you can’t go back, not now. If you go back, Asgore’s death will mean nothing.

You tell yourself that it wasn’t your fault.

_You IDIOT._

You push through the woods as the sky darkens. They don’t scare you anymore.

When you reach the road, night has fallen fully. You’re still far enough away from the city that the lights have not drowned out the stars. You take a second to look up at them, glad for what you have.

You’re less glad when you finally make it back to the city, and back home. Your family hasn’t noticed that you were gone. Or maybe they have, but it hasn’t changed anything. You don’t know which possibility is worse.

Life sort of goes back to normal. Everything feels a little unreal, but you try to ignore it. You’re good at pretending things are fine. Sometimes you almost trick yourself.

But.

You have dreams.

_When you leave… Please do not come back._

_I so badly want to say… “Would you like a cup of tea?”_

You have nightmares.

_Oh, and if you DO hurt Asgore… I’ll beat the HELL out of you._

_buddy… Y o u ‘ d b e d e a d w h e r e y o u s t a n d ._

_You IDIOT._

_YOU IDIOT._

_IT’S KILL OR BE KILLED._

You cannot leave the Underground behind. You think about resetting constantly. But you don’t even know what you’d do differently. The thought of going through that again, only to end up in the same place, fills you with dread.

Maybe this was just the way the world was meant to be.

*******

Between the process of sleepwalking through the day and not sleeping through most of the night, you forget about the cellphone. It fell under your bed at some point, though you don’t realize this until it starts ringing, a month or two after you left the Underground. You scramble through the mess of stuff shoved under your bed until you find it. You almost pick up as soon as you recognise the number.

But you don’t. Instead you set it at the end of the bed instead and let it ring and ring, the nervous feeling in your chest building endlessly. It stops, and you breathe again.

But now there’s a voicemail waiting for you. You don’t listen to it for three days. You can only imagine how angry they must all be, after what happened. You don’t want to hear what they think about you now.

But your nightmares keep getting worse. Now you can’t stop thinking about what Flowey said before he ran away.

_I’ll come back._

_I’ll kill you._

_I’LL KILL EVERYONE YOU LOVE._

In your dreams, you pick up the phone and hear his laughter and the world crumbles around you.

You finally decide you have to listen to the message, at least so you can know for certain that they’re all still alive. You panic as you wait for the message to start. You plan to just listen long enough to make sure they’re alive, and then delete it before you can hear how much they hate you.

But... San’s voice is calm. And not the scary calm, either. Papyrus sounds as cheerful as ever. Even Undyne isn’t angry with you.

"We’re all with you. Everyone is."

Despite your mistakes, they don’t blame you. They still care about you.

Somehow this hit you harder than anything else could have. Before you realize it, you’re sobbing over the phone in your hand, and you want to call them back. But it’s two in the morning, and the last thing you want to do is wake anyone in your house up. You manage to fall asleep, somehow, and resolve to call back in the morning.

When you wake up, you look at the phone. You could call back.

Or you could reset, and go get your happy ending.


End file.
